Talk Cocktail

Creative destruction, change, automation, the Internet of everything.  These are all the issues that seem to impact every aspect of modern life. And whether you believe these things are good or bad, is not relevant.  What is relevant is that they are happening everywhere, including in the context of American spycraft and diplomacy and in institutions like the CIA.
In a world where quick and nimble and of course secrecy are often the objective best practices, spycraft today has gotten more mired in the institutional morass of every bigger bureaucracy.
That’s the underlying backdrop for David Ignatius in his latest spy thriller, The Director.

My conversation with David Ignatius:

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No question we are at the apogee of  basketball playoffs.  Today, almost as much attention gets focused on star coaches as on the star players.  After all, who but stars can manage the egos of today’s NBA players?
However, one man, who is not yet a star, but who gets these players to pay attention, is Idan Ravin.  He’s been called “The Hoops Whisperer,” because of the positive impact he has been able to have on so many, already great,  NBA players.   
He’s a trainer but so much and more. His success says a lot about what it takes to succeed in anything today. He shares his story in The Hoops Whisperer: On the Court and Inside the Heads of Basketball's Best Players.
My conversation with Idan Ravin:

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Ever since the war on drugs became a political and cultural issues in America, we have seemed to be unclear as to how to deal with the very human reality of dealing with those afflicted by addiction.
Too often “just say no,”  became a mantra, not just about use, but about treatment and politics.
Addiction impacts 1 in 4 American families. Unfortunately, we’ve yet to fully comprehend what addiction is really about, or to develop a kinder and gentler and more scientifically modern way to deal with it.
Dr. Jeffrey Foote stands at the forefront of the effort to change that.  His latest work is Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change.
My conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Foote:

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In spite of some interesting rhetoric and some self selecting experiments, like those done by Peter Thiel, along with the outlier careers of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, college is essential for success in today's workplace.
Pew’s recent statistics show that for those with only a high school diploma, the unemployment rate is over 12%. For those with a four year degree, it is 4%.  But how did we get to an environment that on the one hand makes college the central pillar of economic success, in a knowledge based economy, and yet because of costs, pushes it further and further out of the reach of middle and lower socioeconomic groups? 
Was this an accident of public policy, or a deliberate attempt to perpetuate the elite? Suzanne Mettler thinks both are true.  She details her work in  Degrees of Inequality: How the Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream.
My conversation with Suzanne Mettler:

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Throughout time there have always been those trying to stop the forces of progress.  Fear of the new and fear of technology, has been the stuff of both horror and science fiction and of many dystopian visions of the future.
Today, too often in the name of good stewardship of our plant, there are those that believe we need a simpler world.  One where we go back to the land, to the farm, to a kind of Thoreau like localism.  The fact is the world is moving toward cities, technological progress is a force of nature that cannot be stopped and globalization is a genie that will not be put back into the proverbial bottle.
So how do we accept all of this, and still see a future that is livable, sustainable, and provides for our needs and still protects our food, our air, our water and our climate?  The answer lies in technology  and in innovation that is, as Robert Bryce says, Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper.
My conversation with Robert Bryce:

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The war on terror, that began on 9/11/2001 still goes on.  The war in Afghanistan that began shortly after, that was once dubbed “the good war,” is America's longest war.  Sadly the landscape of that nation today, does not reflect the either the lives or treasure that Americans gave to it. 
War is always complicated.  Once the battle is joined, the game plans often go out the window.  Yet when one looks at the mistakes America made in Afghanistan, they were not so much about battle plans or strategy, they were a reflection of a fundamental misreading of history, culture, nuance and the reality of people being different than ourselves.  In an interconnected and globalized world, this is and will continue to be a recipe for repeated disaster.
Anand Gopal spent years covering the war, embedded with both American and Taliban forces.  His reporting culminates in his debut book,  No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes.
My conversation with Anand Goapl:

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Once upon a time protest mattered.  People got angry at the actions of government and actually acted upon it.  While the protests of today, like Tea Party rallies and Occupy Wall Street, often call attention to a problem, arguably they are not intended to do anything about it.
Back in 60’s and 70’s it was a very different story.  Protests on behalf of  Civil Rights and against the Vietnam War would reach a fever pitch. Buildings were seized, protests were both huge and personal. Draft cards were burned and protesters didn’t just spend a night in jail, but sometimes they went to prison for a long time.
What impact did it all have?  Quite a bit.  People and memoirs from both the Nixon and Johnson administrations show that the level of protest really did impact policy. One of those caught up in the times, in fact he is a Zelig like character throughout this period, is Bruce Dancis.
Long after his protest days, Bruce had a long career as a pop culture critic and editor. including sixteen year as the arts and entertainment editor of the Sacramento Bee. Now he feels that enough time has gone by to tell his tory in Resister: A Story of Protest and Prison during the Vietnam War.
My conversation with Bruce Dancis:

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Fifty years ago the nation passed the Civil Rights Act.  Six years ago we elected an African American as President of the United States.  Yet contrary to the hopes of many, we do not live in a post racial society.  
While gay rights and gay marriage are often seen as the civil right issues of our time, and yes remarkable progress has been made, we are also far from a post gay or post gender world.
The reality is, as racial differences have taught us, too much  assimilation and tolerance are potential traps that can wipe out identity and water down the very differences that have been fought for.
In short, is the battle for any civil right about viva la difference, or about homogenization? These are some of the questions that Suzanna Walters asks in The Tolerance Trap: How God, Genes, and Good Intentions are Sabotaging Gay Equality.
My conversation with Suzanna Walters:

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As the recent Jill Abramson kerfuffle at the New York Times, has shown, gender issues still impact the workplaces of even the most public and apparently tolerant of companies.Perhaps in seeing that, and so many other examples, we might realize that we are approaching these issues in the wrong way.  Diversity is not just about numbers, or quotas and expecting everyone to be the same. Homogenization is not diversity.  Being forced to Lean In, is not about recognizing one's strengths, but about mimicking the strengths of others.We still need to learn that while overall acceptance is important, diversity lies not in one size fits all, but in celebrating differences and taking full advantage of the different intelligences that different individuals and different genders bring to the workplace.  These are the issues that Barbara Annis and Keith Merron take up in Gender Intelligence: Breakthrough Strategies for Increasing Diversity and Improving Your Bottom Line.
My conversation with Barbara Annis and Keith Merron:

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Understanding history can be a two edged sword.  On the one hand it is imperative that we understand the forces that have shaped nations and peoples.  On the other hand, often when the present spends too much time sitting in judgment of the past, the future can be lost.   So, how can we understand the shared narrative of the past, while dispelling myths and embracing a kind of proactive historical consciousness? 
Nowhere is that more true than in Russia, and the nations of the former Soviet Union. It’s a place where the effort to reach escape velocity from the past seems forever limited by the gravitational pull of history, and a history that we are just beginning to understand.  Helping us to try and understand this history is Russian expert Orlando Figes.  His new book is Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991: A History
My conversation with Orlando Figes:

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